Along with increasing improvement of image recording technology, active night vision systems for motor vehicles have been developed in which infrared lighting illuminates the scene in front of the vehicle and the image is recorded by an infrared-sensitive video camera. The high contrast of the recorded scene represents a particular problem in these systems. A high contrast occurs, for example, when a well-remitting roadway surface or a well-remitting brightly illuminated object is situated in the near range and when simultaneously a distant, poorly remitting and poorly illuminated object is present whose timely detection is of great importance. Such an object is a pedestrian wearing dark clothes, for example.
The healthy human eye is in a position to detect such high-contrast situations relatively well. A high contrast range may also be processed using modern video cameras. However, there is the problem that it is currently technically impossible to display the full contrast range on a display screen in such a way that the human eye is able to detect it completely. In the above-described situation, this results in the image of the headlight beam, appearing excessively bright, while distant poorly illuminated objects are hardly noticeable.
Therefore, it is the object of the present invention to also display scenes having a high contrast range on a display screen without bright objects or the roadway having an excessively bright display and/or glaring the user.